The week of January 19th

I'm not sure if anyone is still out there is trying to keep up with what is going on but here goes. The week of January 19th was very busy.

Since flooring will be installed in our living room soon we decided to take advantage of it being empty and repaint the walls and ceiling. In addition we decided to add crown molding - while I am happy I won't have to cut in the walls I now realize it is causing a tremendous amount of caulking and puttying.

We moved all of the furniture from the living room into the dining room. Hershey isn't too sure about the new furniture arrangement. You can see him on the back of the couch.



With the living room empty I got started painting the front window. You can see the "before" and "after" pictures... this is the last window in the house that was stained. We had already painted all of the other window trim white in the rest of the house. What a difference it makes having this large window with white trim!!!



It took several coats to paint the front living room window so while that was drying I worked on caulking and painting the windows in the three season room and painting the crown molding we were going to put in the living room.



Once Friday arrived we were ready to paint the living room walls and ceiling. The boys were always near by for moral support.


Our biggest challenge for the weekend was the crown molding. We wanted to get that hung before the flooring would be installed on January 26th. On Saturday January 24th, Forrest realized he couldn't get the blade changed on his chop saw, the stop was broken and it soon became apparent that there was no way to change the blade - so off we went to get a new chop saw. We knew we were going to be using one a lot in the coming weeks to put in all of the baseboards.

Finally on Sunday - after getting the saw set up we were ready to start putting in the crown molding.


Crown molding starts going up - starting with the longest wall first.

The boys once again give us moral support.


Finally we work our way around the room and get the last piece in. If you have ever hung crown molding you know this is no easy feat.


Our efforts realized!


After a long day we remove the temporary carpet we had down (for the last eight years) so that the new floor can be installed tomorrow.


Denver is not too sure about removing the carpet.

Week of January 12th

The lack of posts on the blog are only due to the lack of time I have had on my computer. Once again I am behind.

Here is what happened the week of January 12th.

The dumpster finally left.



During the week I continued to paint.
The stairs will be carpeted but the sides had to be painted.



Friday they came and did more grading. The rest will have to wait until spring when the ground thaws.



Over the weekend we did touch up painting and put a second coat on the accent wall in the dining room.



Sunday evening we removed the protective coating on the windows - what a difference that made!!!!

Our New Deck

I realized that I neglected to include photos of the finished deck on Day 58.

That is Andy in the first picture - he is happy to have a deck again.

The second picture is the area that is off the new Dining Room. You can see that we moved the grill back - hopefully Forrest will have some time to grill in the coming weeks.

New Ceiling

We spent several days over the holidays putting in the ceiling in the laundry room and downstairs hall area. This process took a lot of measuring and cutting but we are happy with the end result. We still have a few "runners" to put in the laundry room but we are almost finished.

The first photo shows how we had to add 2x4's to the ceiling to allow room for the pipes in the laundry room.


This photo shows the grid system that consists of several components.

The first tile is in place.


One of the biggest challenges we encountered was lowering the exhaust vent in the laundry room - we had difficulty because of the mounting bracket and the proximately of the floor joist - but we managed to work around all of the obstacles.


The finished product -

What's Been Going on These Last Few Weeks

A trip to Lowes required us to rent their truck to get the carpet, vinyl and cabinets we purchased home. The carpet is for the lower room, vinyl is for the three season room and cabinets are for the laundry room.



Painting doors and baseboards.






Forrest adjusts cabinet shelves for me so I can fill them.
This was a task that was easier said that done.

Christmas Day

Christmas at the Troutman's -
Thanks to my brother Paul and his wife Kristen - we had a small Christmas Tree - the only sign of Christmas at our house this year.



It wouldn't be Christmas if Denver and Hershey didn't get new toys - these were also from their Uncle Paul & Aunt Kristen. Thanks Paul & Kristen!!!!


We had an ice storm Christmas Eve - all of the trees were coated with ice.
Thankfully the sun came out and melted most of it on Christmas Day so we didn't have limbs break.



Here is a clever Christmas song that Paul wrote for us -

Twelve buckling wall boards
Eleven construction workers
Ten enclosed basement lights
Nine kitchen cabinets
Eight countertops
Seven days a week at
Six in the morning

Five... dump... trucks!

Four sloping roofs
Three season room
Two snowstorms
and a Denver who comes home for Christmas!!!!

Day 79 - Catching Up

To say we have been busy is an understatement.

For the first two months of this "project" I was able to post almost daily because I was able to work on my computer while workers were here. For the past several weeks Forrest and I have been doing all of the work, therefore I rarely get on my computer. We rise early in the morning and collapse in the evening only to get up and do it again the next day. I apologize for neglecting to keep the blog updated so I'm going to do my best to catch up with this post.

Forrest took off from work from Christmas to January 6th. During that time we continued to work (even on Christmas Day & New Year's Day). At times our "to do" list is overwhelming but we continue to move ahead.

The trimmer was the last worker and he finished up on December 29th. He will be back to finish the trim on the stairs after the flooring is installed in the dining room and the carpet on the stairs. With all of the "workers" gone we have been able to set up areas to paint doors and baseboards. Right now the work is on our shoulders to get things finished.

We decided to take on the role of "painters" - unfortunately we didn't think about everything that comes with painting new construction - which includes puttying holes and caulking window and door trim - if I had known that I would have had fewer windows. I have gone through four tubes of caulk - I think I can caulk in my sleep. I might get a job "caulking" in the future -

We have found that everything we do has a domino effect that prevents us from getting any one room completely finished which at times causes us frustration. One big accomplishment we have made was to install the ceiling in the laundry and downstairs hall area before Forrest had to head back to work. Forrest also painted all of the doors and the baseboard that is waiting to be installed. This week I have continued to paint trim. Since our target continues to move I'm not sure what is on the agenda for this weekend.

At the moment "blogger" isn't letting me upload photos so I'll get them posted as soon as I can.

I think since I have some time before Forrest gets home (and since I have already washed out my paint brush) I will go and take some pictures of my favorite things.